GETTING THE LIST RIGHT: Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami going through the summary and intensive revision of electoral rolls on a computer at the Collectorate in Coimbatore on Thursday. — Photo: M. Periasamy

COIMBATORE: Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami expressed concern at the indifference of urban voters in applying for the Elector's Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) and said that steps are being taken to increase the number of EPIC holders from 70 per cent to85 per cent in the State by January next.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, after reviewing the ongoing summary and intensive revision of electoral rolls, he said that the percentage of rural voters opting for the EPIC was good. But the urban voters did not find time to apply for the EPIC or for videographing. The national and State average of the EPIC was close to 70 per cent while it was 52 per cent in Coimbatore, he said.

Haryana and Uttar Pradesh did very well in issuing the EPIC, registering 90 and 98.5 per cent. The Election Commission would explore all possibilities to improve the issue of the EPIC.

It planned to ask the voters to furnish all documents along with the application including photographs so that the cards could be issued without their having to turn up for videographing.

"It would be too early to deny voting rights to people without photo voter ID cards and the Commission wanted to give some more time before making it mandatory for discharging one's democratic duty," he said.

On publishing electoral rolls with photographs to eliminate bogus voting, he said Kerala and Pondicherry already achieved this. The Election Commission usually fixed January 1 every year as the benchmark for summary revision of electoral rolls. However, this year, the revision got delayed due to certain "unavoidable reasons."

The State Chief Electoral Officer, Naresh Gupta, said summary and intensive revision were in the final stages.

In Tamil Nadu, electoral rolls with photographs would become a reality by January next, Mr. Gopalaswami said.

The Coimbatore Collector and Corporation Commissioner, were asked to avail themselves of the services of NSS volunteers for tracing missing names. At present, they were involved in summary revision in all areas and intensive revision in areas where complaints of large-scale deletions were reported in the Lok Sabha polls in 2004.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous | Engagements |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Updates: Breaking News |